Wednesday, July 18, 2012

What Went Wrong: The Rockies jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning (thanks to home runs from Dexter Fowler and Carlos Gonzalez) and a 5-1 lead after two. That should be good news. However, the Rockies trailed 6-5 after three innings. And then they trailed 9-6 after five.

A Jordan Pacheco error didn't help matters (unless your main concern is Guthrie's ERA), but the Pedro Alvarez solo home run and the Garrett Jones three-run jack had already taken place, so it's not like the error began the unraveling. It's just a continuation of a season long unraveling for Guthrie that shows no signs of correcting itself.

I understand what Matt Reynolds role is. He understands it as well. I just don't know that is suits him very well or that you should try squeezing a third inning out of him unless it's a desperation situation. Maybe today qualifies, I don't know, but he did well to escape the 3rd inning. He was fantastic in the 4th. And then that 5th inning comes around and he just didn't have much left it seemed.

I know the pitch count was good, and I know he's thrown multiple innings before, but I think it has to be different warming up, coming into the middle of an inning, and then being asked to warm up, throw another inning, warm up again, throw another inning. That's why we've often seen Tracy use a reliever simply to finish an inning and then he goes to the piggyback/bridge guy to start the next clean inning. I think not going that route proved costly today.